Chapter 3: Conspiracy

1 The third battle of the day got off to an explosive start as Ness battled his Goliath-sized opponent. He was only ten years old, but his physic abilities gave him the power to dodge Bowser's sharp claws, which were as big as his torso. He bobbed left and right, using his powers to levitate, and when he saw an open shot he zapped Bowser with lightning. His opponent breathed fire at Ness and took as many opportunities to do damage as he could. The battle raged on like a game of tug-of-war for a while.

Cloud noticed that the crowd around him seemed more interested then usual. The crowd gaped and cheered with every passing event in the fight. It was a battle between a kid and a dragon, taking place in a raging forest fire; it was the stuff of legends and fairy tales. Many were fascinated at how a ten year old kid from earth, a world notorious for having weak fighters, could battle this behemoth. Cloud and his group however, were watching patently, waiting to see what Bowser would do.

The fight continued as normal, never going too deeply into to burning forest around them. Ness attacked Bowser with an electrically charged uppercut to his face. Bowser quickly stepped back and the attack missed, leaving Ness open to a roundhouse kick from his oversized foot. Ness went flying backwards and vanished into the burning woods.

For a few seconds, the battle stopped. Then a strange thing happened. The area where Ness seemed to land started to rumble. Then it twisted and contorted as though it were underwater. The area bloated and finally imploded into itself. An object moved from that area to Bowser at a tremendous speed. With twin electrically charged fists in front of him, Ness blasted towards Bowser like a bolt of lightning. The seemingly young child reached Bowser and savagely punched him in the face over and over, as quickly as he could. Every hit dug in to Bowser's face and pushed him back. He hit him again and again and again until one last punch knocked Bowser a few meters back. Both Ness' hand and Bowser's face were covered in his sickly green blood.

The injured dragon stood up and glared at Ness with his crimson eyes. He balled one of his scaly claws into a fist and it ignited into a ball of fire. It reminded Cloud of one of Mario's skills, but it was much more magnificent. He then did the same thing to his other claw, so that there was a ball of fire at the end of both of his arms. He waved his arms around at incredible speed and hundreds of smaller fireballs erupted from his hands and hurtled towards Ness.

Cloud, for all his battle skills, couldn't follow Bowser's hand movements. He looked over to his friends. Link was trying to follow it as were most of the other people there. Mario had the sense to not even bother trying. Strangely, Chrono seemed to have gone into some sort of trance, and was staring deeply at the ring. Upon closer inspection Chrono's eyes were moving rapidly, indicating that he was managing to follow Bowser's hands.

Finally, the fireballs stopped coming. Ness was pushed a few feet into the ground and was starting to get up. Bowser was not going to give him the chance however, and charged over to him. He jump a few meters into the air and hit Ness with a pile drive. Then Bowser stood up and backed away from Ness. With a large amount of difficulty, Ness stood up again, but this time Bowser did nothing. Ness looked pretty beat up. His shirt was ripped and dirty and his hair was matted. The look on his face was so filled with anger and determination it was surreal coming from a ten-year old.

Suddenly the two warriors started talking again. Cloud didn't know what they were saying, but he did notice a few other things. Something about the air changed. It was hard to put his finger on exactly what it was, the best he could describe it as was a light twinge. He looked around, and most people seemed oblivious to the change, the only ones he saw that reacted to it were Chrono and Link. The twinge got stronger, and he now recognized it as a pulse of energy radiating from the ring. They were both preparing for something big. He leaned in closer to see what it was. He wanted something; some clue to what Bowser was planning. What was Auron looking for? If he could only hear what they were saying…

An explosion caused him to recoil to the back of his seat. Lightning and fire rushed from their respective warriors and to their opponents, passing through the other element. Bolts of plasma raced through the inferno from Ness' palm to hit Bowser squarely on the chin and the same was true for Bowser's attack. Both were having trouble keeping the attack up while under so much pain. This duel was brutal and seemingly unending; it lasted for over thirty seconds just like this.

Ness saw his chance and took it. He stopped firing and at top speed flew over to Bowser. He charged his fist and took a swipe at Bowser from behind. It missed. Bowser sidestepped the attack and wound up behind Ness. He took his giant claw and grabbed Ness's whole head. The child helplessly tried attacking Bowser to escape, but his monstrous opponent squeezed his head with his massive claw. Ness screamed in pain, audible even to Cloud.

Bowser took his other claw and started ripping at Ness, who was still screaming in agony. Cloud could see that Bowser was being careful not to kill him. He was causing more pain than actual damage. Screaming and bloody, Ness was a horrible sight, and from the way the audience looked, he wasn't the only one who thought so. This was the first time Ness looked like a little kid in an adult's fight. He saw a few people in the nearby rows crying, and Mario was gritting his teeth and tightening his fist.

Finally the screaming stopped and Ness went limp. There were receptors that tell the audience both fighters physical injuries through an HP score and, while it was in low double digits from a perfect thousand, it wasn't zero, so it was likely that Ness was only unconscious. Then Bowser dropped his limp opponent, and waited to be declared the winner. End 1

There were a minutes of silence from the tournament administrators. Everyone who saw that fight knew that it was a borderline violation of the "excessive force" rule of the tournament, the penalty of which is disqualification from the tournament. It was a lesser version of the anti-killing rule which involved imprisonment. In this new multiverse, each world had its own laws, and on the otherwise governmentless world of Tantalus, Sieg's rules were law. The only way to get away with death in this tournament was to specifically ask Sieg for a pardon, which he had yet to ever give out.

Cloud and his friends didn't speak one word until Bowser's ruling was given out, during which Cloud impatiently twiddled the fingers of his gloved hand. Finally, Kuja spoke. "The tournament administrators have decided that Bowser will be allowed to compete in the tournament under probation. That means that should he break any rules for the duration of this tournament, he will be kicked out. Also, due to the delay ruling and the fact that time will be needed to repair the ring, the wait between fights will be fifteen minutes instead of ten. The competitors have 12 minutes left. That is all."

Suddenly the force field machines revved up and something that looked like a glass orb surrounded the ring. Then Cloud heard a click, and the glass orb turned opaque, blocking out the ring from view. Cloud wondered what they were hiding when Mario spoke up, "Now you see what I mean. He pushed himself too far, and lost his mind."

Chrono turned to Cloud and said, "Mario, Ganondorf, and that Kefka person; are they all under Sephiroth?"

"Yes, they respect and follow him without question. They may even fear him somewhat," said Cloud.

Chrono stuttered. "That's….unbelievable. To command three warriors like that….. He would need to be…."

"Nearly invincible," Link finished for him.

"Yeah…I wonder what types of powers Kefka has…" Sonic said.

"Well, we'll find out soon enough. His fight is coming up later today," said Chrono.

"Hey," said a voice from behind Cloud.

Everyone turned in Cloud's direction and they saw Vaan standing a few feet away from him. Cloud got out of the way and Vaan sat down next between him and Mario. He looked distraught, but it was hidden behind an obviously fake energetic demeanor. No one else seemed to notice it except Chrono, whom Cloud always thought was the most observant member of the group. They all talked for a while, although Vaan never actually addressed where he went. After a while they heard the announcement that the fight was beginning.

The battle was against two animal-like creatures, one reptilian and the other mammalian. The fight was rather dull and long lasting, and when the reptile won Cloud breathed a sigh of relief that it passed without incident, before he realized that Aeris' fight was up next.

"Are you ready, Aeris?" he said.

"Of course I am. Do you think I would be out of practice just because of a little case of death?" she said with a large smile.

The group looked at her strangely for a bit before she picked up a large rod from behind her seat. It was at least four feet long and overly ornate for a battle weapon. Cloud gave it to her last night; it was the same weapon she used in the Midgar War before she died. She said good bye to everyone and then made her way to the ring.

"So, does anyone know who she's up against?" said Vaan.

"Someone named Sora, I think." said Cloud.

"Sora?" said Chrono. Cloud confirmed and Chrono quickly got up and said "I'll be back in a few minutes. I have to go to the bathroom," He turned and started muttering to himself while walking; during which Cloud distinctly use the word, "Idiot." Suddenly Chrono turned around again and said, "By the way, my friend from yesterday is coming to meet me for lunch. If we're eating together, he'll be joining us."

"So how well does she fight?" Fox asked Cloud after Chrono had left.

Cloud looked at him and gave him a slight smirk.

Aeris looked at the clock hesitantly; the fight would be starting any second. She was a great fighter before she died, but she didn't know if this body would be as strong, or if some other part of death had weakened her. She strengthened her resolve to fight. "Cloud did a lot to bring me back to life, I won't let him down now," she thought to herself. Suddenly, the door to the ring opened, and she entered.

Her opponent was a teenage boy in a goofy outfit. His brown hair was spiked in a way that reminded her of Cloud. His childish face and large, glossy eyes masked the warrior that he had to be to be in the tournament. In his hand was something that could at best be described as a large key.

Kuja started speaking while Aeris was unzipping the bottom portion of her dress so that they acted more like pants. "Welcome to the last fight of the East Division before the hour long Mid-division break. Our first fighter is Aeris Gainsborough Strife and... That's all I have to say about her, the rest has been declared confidential by Sieg." Kuja ended the sentence with a shrug before continuing.

"Her opponent is the fourteen year old Sora Skye. Born on Destiny Islands, current homeworld is unknown. This is the first time he's competed in any tournament, but he did well in the prelims, so we'll just have to see.

Well, there's not a lot else to say about this fight, so we'll just have to see. On my count, you can begin. One. Two. Three. BEGIN!"

Aeris ran up to him with speed that even surprised her. She took her staff in both hands and held it like a small battering ram. Before Sora could even move she was on top of him, dealing a large quantity of blows to his upper torso. Sora managed to jump back a few feet and Aeris attacked again. This time, Sora dodged the attacks, although with great difficulty. Sora weaved and bobbed between attacks like it was an art form. This continued on for a few minutes, never leaving the center part of the ring. Finally, Sora used his large key and blocked an attack. Her rod got caught in the key, and she couldn't move it anywhere except against the key.

"This is the Keyblade" said Sora "It may look like a movie prop, but it's the only weapon of its kind and it's incredibly powerful."

"You talk too much." Said Aeris and Sora's expression darkened. He yelled out a spell and fire erupted from the tip of his Keyblade. It zoomed around in a way that reminded Aeris of a leap, and began to fall right on top of her. Quickly, she yelled "RELESHAN!" and the fire ball melted into nothing a few inches from her. Suddenly, the fire ball reappeared where it dissolved, and did the same thing it did before, only this time it attacked Sora.

Sora was too shocked to take any defensive measures and was hit head on by the ball of fire. He clutched his head in pain and ran off to recuperate in the forest. Aeris ran after him but couldn't find him in the dense forest. Minutes passed without any sign of him, and she was getting worried. He must have recovered by then and was probably planning his counter attack, she thought to herself. She was right.

A disk of energy flew towards her, cutting down every tree in the way. She jumped out of the way and the disk just barely missed her. She stood up and looked for the source of the blast. Then she felt a sharp pain in her left part of her waist. She looked at the pain and saw that her dress was torn and the area was bleeding. Clutching her waist, she looked around and saw the source of the injury; the disk came back like a boomerang.

Then she saw Sora, who caught the disk with ease. "The disk is his Keyblade!" Aeris thought to herself. He threw it again. Aeris dodged both the throw, and the return, but every time it came back to him, he just threw it right back at her. Aeris dodged left and right, taking a number of blows just like the first one. A good amount of the area had been deforested by Sora, and his shots were getting more and more on target. She couldn't dodge any more; he was going to hit her directly sooner or later. She gathered her energy and called out, "AERO!" A gust of wind attacked the disk and it stopped dead in its tracks. It shook a lot, trying to break free from the wind, but the momentum was lost, and it fell impotently to the ground.

Sora, looked at the Keyblade in disbelief, he knew that he would never reclaim it before Aeris did. He looked at Aeris and his body began to shine with a light blue light. A large aura surrounded him, and he looked frightening to Aeris. He gathered energy in the palm of his hands, and prepared to fire a huge blast of energy towards her. Then he froze. He stopped the attack dead, and had a pained look on his face like he almost did something bad. He was distracted, and Aeris took advantage of the opportunity. She was going to finish this with one attack. All her magical power was focused in her rod, which she pointed at Sora like a gun. Then she released it as a huge wave a pure white energy, which engulfed Sora.

When it finally dispersed, Sora was unconscious. A few seconds later she was declared the winner, and she breathed a deep sigh of relief. She took a look at her wounds; they weren't major and would be healed within a few days. Then she hastily left the ring and headed back to her seat.

As soon as Aeris arrived back at her seat, she was berated with questions about her fighting style. "What type of fighting style was that! I've never seen anything like it," Mario stuttered. "Where did you learn to fight?" asked Fox. "What was that blast you fired at the end?" said Chrono, who had come back a while ago. All Sonic could say was, "You can fight?"

Aeris looked a bit surprised at first, and when she looked at Cloud, he only shrugged. Aeris sighed and said, "It's a cross between Judo and white magic. I'm self taught. That blast at the end is the best white magic spell and the only one that does direct damage, Holy. And yes, Sonic, I can fight. Why wouldn't I be able to?"

Sonic just gaped at her silently. "That should kill any latent sexism in this group." thought Cloud with a chuckle. As much as he'd like to see where this went, he had to interrupt. "I have a meeting with someone. I don't know if I'm allowed to bring anyone, so I'll be going alone."

"What? You're not bringing us?" said Vaan.

"I just told you why I can't." said Cloud agitatedly.

"Well, I'm saying you can, and if Auron doesn't like it, too bad. You all deserve to know what's going on."

"Fine." said Cloud sharply. He didn't like to be pushed around. "I'm sorry if this is confusing for everybody, but you'll all understand when we get there, I think." He said to everyone, who now nodded with understanding. "Now we…. Oh crap," Cloud said as he realized his own stupidity. "I forgot to ask where to meet him."

Vaan rolled his eyes and then sharply said, "You can be so useless sometimes, Cloud. Just follow me; I know where he intended on gathering." Vaan started walking out of the stadium and the rest of the group hesitantly followed. The group was quiet, and the ten minute walk passed by without incident or conversation. Then, they reached a small area in town. Auron was sitting at a bench along with Yuna. With the exception of Vaan and Cloud, the entire group was surprised to see Auron there, who they barely recognized. Vaan walked up to them and said, "Shall we begin?"

2 "Yes. For those who don't remember me, I am a friend of Tidus', the boy who was injured by Ganondorf yesterday. Before we left the hospital, I approached Vaan with a concern of mine. Something about that fight seemed off, and I suspected cheating."

Everyone looked shocked at this, except Link, who said, "You felt the discrepancy in Ganondorf's spell's power too, right?" Auron nodded. "I see. Carry on."

"As I was saying, I noticed something amiss, so I had Vaan use his connections with Sieg to find out if there was something he could find in any of the current tournament's records."

"It didn't take long to find something," Vaan said. "The first thing I found was that the rankings members of Sephiroth's group got in the prelims was different from what they would have got to be seeded where they were. They were all enough to get in, and a few scored even higher then they claimed, but what matters is the fact that they were changed. Someone wanted to make sure, not only would they get in, but they would be fighting who they wanted to fight.

But that's not the major thing, either. Auron thought that someone gave the extra power to Ganondorf using the force field machines, so I looked at all the records for their electrical readouts. There was another discrepancy. Everything seemed normal, but at specific points the energy patterns varied wildly."

"One of the ones he found," said Auron, "was a spike in energy output that he placed right around the time of Ganondorf and Tidus' fight. That should prove my theory right there."

Vaan's expression darkened. "But there's more. There were six times yesterday where there was a period of extra energy being taken along with the alternating current and diverted someplace else. The one I recognized immediately was during that fight, right after the spike in output, but I couldn't place the others. I racked my brain, and pulled an all nighter trying to figure out the link. Most of them were during a fight, but a few went outside that requirement. Then this morning, I noticed a slight spike around the time you told us about Sephiroth. It was within normal parameters, but it looked exactly like a smaller version of the usual spikes.

Then I took a look at each of the individual machines and discovered that certain machines, numbers thirteen through eighteen, were absorbing what ever it was they were absorbing. They were all pulling in far more then they pulled during the other spikes. The middle machine, the one with the strongest pull, was right where those two were fighting yesterday. You remember, it was the one that Sephiroth was looking at?"

Everyone nodded in agreement and Vaan continued. "There was another spike at the end of Ness and Bowser's fight, the largest one yet. Exactly when I thought it would too. That proves my theory…" Vaan shuddered at whatever he was thinking.

Auron spoke up, seeing as Vaan couldn't seem to get the words out. "Sephiroth is using the force field generators to absorb dark emotions." Everyone stared at him with a look of horror on their faces.

"Are…Are you sure?" asked Fox. Vaan bit his lip and nodded. "But what could they do with it, how can emotions be absorbed? This makes no sense…"

"Compared to other things I've seen lately, it makes perfect sense," said Auron. "In the past ten years we have found out so many shocking things about this universe. Is the concept of emotions being a form of energy so unbelievable? After all, love and hate have both led people to do things that they would never had the energy to do without." Yuna shifted uncomfortably at that.

Auron continued. "On top of that, Vaan did research on the two people that were fighting last night. They are from a world called Wayward, and its people have the ability to tap into their emotions to power magical abilities. This causes energy to radiate off of them when they feel a particularly strong emotion, like anger. When they had a verbal conflict, they produced about ten times more energy then normal, an that was absorbed into the machines. It all fits. We need to accept it to counteract it."

Then, Auron looked over to Vaan, and nodded. Vaan nodded back and began to speak. "Despair, pity, sorrow, wrath, greed, pride, and bloodlust. All of these emotions bring out that dark energy, and all of them can be found in both the competitors and viewers of this tournament. They've been planning this for a long time, and it's an inside job. There has to be someone pulling the knobs and levers to make this work. Not only that, but there has to be a container for all this energy that's being collected, and possibly a machine to make it into what ever it needs to be."

Cloud smashed a wall with his gloved hand, leaving the wall cracked. Gritting his teeth, he spoke out. "He actually did it…..there is a large machine somewhere in this world where he is collecting that energy and transforming it into a solid object. I've seen a version of it on Midgar." He thought back to that night. The howling machine, and the look on his face. The blood on Sephiroth's sword……on his……

Chrono said, "Well, I say we take the time to absorb this information and we'll meet during lunch to figure out our counter attack, meanwhile, I'll fill in Magus. Tidus and Sieg should also know."

"I'll tell Sieg and Auron can tell Tidus. We should talk this over during lunch," said Vaan. The group nodded and everyone went their separate ways. The mood was somber and everyone was having trouble absorbing this information. 2

Vaan was already at his seat, going over papers filled with statistics and facts, when Cloud and Aeris arrived at the stadium for the rest of the battles. No one spoke, even after the others arrived and the announcements for the next fight began. They were all too lost in thought. The thought of Sephiroth using their own emotions against them was something they found truly terrifying. They didn't even notice that Magus had failed to show up. Finally, the sound of Kuja yelling out, "GO!" brought all of them back into attention to watch the fight.

Cloud noticed that one of the fighters was the person Isaac was fighting with yesterday. The brown haired warrior was dodging gunshots left and right, and made excellent use of the fauna in the ring. Watching him fight was amazing, and Cloud couldn't help but feel like he would have fun battling him. The warrior was fighting a man completely covered in armor, and was shooting up the whole ring with his rifle. For a while, the battle consisted mainly of the first fighter dodging shots and taking occasional slashes at the armor of the second one. Finally, the warrior got a good hit in and broke the rifle in two.

The battle seemed to have been won with little difficulty, but it was not over yet. The armored fighter drew out a second hand gun and shot his opponent at point blank range, hitting him on the shoulder. He gave a loud yell of pain and fell to the floor of the ring. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. It was slight at first, but it grew and grew, until finally large, sharp rocks came out of the ground and lacerated the legs and arms of the green warrior, going right through his armor. The warrior fell to the floor, bleeding, and was then escorted to the medical tent by Sieg's staff. The brown haired warrior had won the fight, albeit in a somewhat grotesque and unnecessary way.

The mood only darkened among the friends as the fights continued, even though Sonic won his fight in the last round of the division. There was a break in between rounds and the group went to meet with Tidus and his friends for lunch. They arrived at a different restaurant then the one they went to and found the people they were meeting were already there. Sitting at a large round table was Auron, Yuna, and a moderately bandaged Tidus, and with them was a man Cloud didn't recognize.

He was tall, dark, and somewhat disturbing to look at. His skin was grey, and his demeanor was dark and brooding. He had long, shiny blue hair, and his physique as a whole looked like a corruption of Sephiroth. He seemed to be aged a thousand years, and steeped in dark magic. He seemed unnatural among the other faces here, and cloud had to resist drawing his sword. Somehow, however, Cloud was able to remain polite when he spoke.

"Hello everyone. I'm glad to see you're all better, Tidus. May I ask who this is?"

The darkened figure of a man turned over to him and spoke. "My name is Janus Zeal, but Chrono probably referred to me as Magus."

"You're Chrono's friend?" said Vaan. "But you're so….."

"Evil looking?" Magus said with a dark laugh. "Yes, well, long term exposure to dark magic does tend to have that effect on you. However, I can assure you that Chrono and I are long time allies, despite my 'evil-villain' complexion."

"Yes, Magus is very trustworthy, although he does leave an evil impression at first. However, that proved to be useful today. I'll explain, but sit down first. We should have a waiter soon," said Chrono. Everyone did as he said and looked at Chrono intently, but he instead diverted attention to Magus, who began speaking.

"Now, I know all about your theory on dark energy though emotions, and I have good news and bad news. The good news is I am absolutely positive that you are right. The bad news is I already knew about this, and was going to tell Chrono about it this afternoon. All the work you guys did was pointless." He paused when he heard a thud where Vaan's head collapsed on the table before continuing. "I have been drenched in the powers of darkness almost all of my life. I could sense the movements of the darkness moving through the whole planet; it was obvious something was going on.

Not only that, but this man saw what I was doing and actually tired to recruit me," Magus chuckled darkly again. "His name was Ganondorf, a big man with a complexion even more menacing then mine, and said he was a member of Seele, a group attempting the creation of an actual Dark Heart."

"We know Ganondorf and I think Cloud mentioned Seele once, but what's a Dark Heart?" said Link.

"It is basically a genre of magically created items; one that is particularly dangerous. The basic idea is that if you refined and condensed enough darkness, you could cause an imbalance in the nature of the universe. However, there are almost a dozen different types that have been proven to be theoretically possible to create. Some of those are Bloodstones, which could kill and absorb the souls of thousands of people at once, the Dark Spores, which bring out people's latent darkness, and Controllers, which are said to be able to manipulate the flow of time. There are even some ideas about how Dark Hearts could be used for good purposes.

However, this is an extremely hard to perform and potentially dangerous magic. It hasn't even been attempted in decades, since some guy named Adolph from Earth went insane attempting it."

Vaan's head rose very quickly. "Adolph? Adolph Hitler?" Magus thought for a second and then nodded. "That man killed millions of people and started a world war to create this thing! Is that how much darkness and horror is needed for something like this! That's sick!"

"Well..." Magus said, "According to what Ch- to what I've learned, his methods for collection were very unrefined, getting only a tenth of what Sephiroth seems to be getting, but in truth, it's not the death count that matters. Sephiroth could only need to take out two or three people, maybe even no one, as long as enough tragedy surrounds this tournament."

Fox started to look annoyed. "I'm sick of all this talk and no action. What good is it to know what these Seele guys are doing if we can't do anything about it?"

"Actually," Magus said, "I do have a plan…of a sort. It's simple, really. I'll be fighting Ganondorf in the next round. I'll just have to pound some more concrete answers out of him." He followed this with his usual dark laugh.

Link Scoffed. "Ganondorf is no weakling. He is an inhumanly strong warrior, the best I've ever met. And besides that, your plan seems a little rough."

"Yeah!" said Sonic. "I thought you said you weren't evil."

"When did I ever say that? I just said that I was Chrono's friend. I never said I wasn't evil." Magus smirked as he spoke.

"Well, we need to find out what Sephiroth is doing. I think you should do your best, Magus," said Chrono. Cloud nodded.

Then the topic moved on to introductions, although Magus' never really got past "an old friend." They all had lunch and soon it was time for the battles to begin again. This time it was the south division, which included Mario, Chrono, Kefka and Sephiroth, among others. Tidus had to rest up, so he and his friends went back to his cabin. Magus, however, joined the group to watch this division.

The stadium as named Suzaku Stadium, and like the others, had a themed arena, this one was fire. The round ring was filled with small holes like an air hockey table, and was capable of producing large flames at the discretion of Sieg and his staff. Mario, the fire master, was extremely pleased when his name was called and he had the first fight. The fight ended quickly, in Mario's favor, and the words "second degree burns" were mentioned a few times before the second fight began. The fight was pretty fun to watch, and was relatively even and long lasting, but Cloud hadn't really cared about the tournament's random fights since he saw Sephiroth.

Finally, it was Kefka's turn. Chrono turned to the others and said, "I think I'm going to go up a little closer to get a better idea of what we're dealing with."

"I'll join you," said Magus, and the two of them left together.

"So, have you filled Mobius in yet?" asked Magus.

"No, I think I'm going to get some more information and then send a packet to them tonight. They can run it through FATE and see what she says. Regardless, for the time being at least, this is not a Mobius problem. Sephiroth is just a man."

Chrono and Magus arrived and soon after that, Kuja began his usual spiel. Kefka's information was as meager as the rest of Seele's members were. His opponent, Puck, was a knight from the world of Avalon and received a high seeding, more the double the score that Kefka received, not that it meant anything.

As the battle began, Kefka and Puck were just jumping around, avoiding the flames and occasionally launching spells at each other. Kefka dodged and countered while avoiding the flames, which seemed to be particularly vicious in this fight. All and all there was nothing very unusual or violent about the fight.

Then suddenly, it seemed like Kefka saw an opportunity. While Puck was still stuck with the flames, Kefka stopped moving for a second and brought his hand to his face. His skin turned grey and his eyes glowed with a bright orange hue. Then blue lines began spreading from his hand to just a little past his elbow, and the two markings below his eyes that made him look a little like a clown began to glow as well. Finally, his arm transformed into a large white armored hand and a long thin blade grew out from between his fore and middle finger.

Magus looked shocked. "Is that what I think it is!"

"Yes, it's definitely an Atma. He's an esper. From the look of it he probably used a Varna." Chrono looked and with a grimace. "They'll be interested to hear this, I'm sure. However, I'm not quite ready to get them officially involved yet. There have been espers like him before."

The fight continued, but this new Kefka moved faster then before. Before he even knew what had happened, Kefka's blade had sliced right into Puck's torso, leaving a very long and bloody, but luckily shallow, flesh wound. Paramedics took Puck away, and Kefka was the winner.

When Kefka left the ring, Chrono went over to talk to him. "You're an Esper, aren't you? Do you know what the punishment for that is? Men like you are not allowed to posses Atmas."

"Oh, I know what I did, and I don't care if you are some big shot. I'm not going down with Sephiroth behind me."

"So, if you knew who I was, then why did you go out of your way to show off?"

"Simple, I needed to get you mad. You know that the Dark Heart is fueled by darkness," said Kefka with a smile. "You should be more careful, your emotions will betray you. Now then, I must be going." Kefka left and Chrono just grit his teeth and dealt with a new major piece of information. For a second he just stood there before running back to get Magus and inform the others.

Next Chapter

Life and death are a part of battle, and oaths can be both made and broken. One plan will fail, and another will succeed. Tensions rise and friendships will be tested, but in the end, the members of Seele will make their biggest move yet, and the threat will become much more real.

Next time: "Friendship's End"
You're going to carry that weight.

Authors Notes: So, I finally managed to finish this chapter. Heh, when I first started it I was aiming for the end of September. Pity how much time gets devoted to other things. However, and I know I say this a lot, I am going to attempt to write more often. Thanks to anyone willing to read it.

Now then, I know this chapter is only half of the usual, but I promise that I meant for it to be this way. It works out rather well, anyways. This was supposed to be the build up chapter to the next one, with the first two being the proper series start. And I promise that the next one is going to be big, long, and interesting. People will finally stop talking and start taking action….sort of. You'll see…Next time, on Dragon Ball Z...Never mind.